بِسْمِ اللهِ الرَّحْمَنِ الرَّ حِيْمِ
When Allah gives
us a message in the Holy Qur’an the common practice of a lot of people is to
put a meaning to it; what they think is right, and confine it to that
alone. What we need to understand is
that the Qur’anic meanings of each verse are so comprehensive that it is
actually impossible for us to completely understand them. The translation alone is not the complete
message because each word has so many dimensions of meanings associated with
it.
For example Allah
says in the Qur’an;
‘Take note that
amongst you is the Messenger of Allah’. (49:7)
Some people
interpret this to mean that the Sunnah or the way of the Holy Prophet Muhammad
(pboh) will always be with us; therefore we can get guidance from it. However don’t you think that if Allah meant
the Sunnah of His beloved (pboh) He would have specified that ‘his sunnah is
with us’?
Instead He says
that the Messenger is with us.
What then does it mean? This is
something that is difficult to understand through scientific reasoning and
logic. From a spiritual point of view
the Prophet (pboh) has a special connection with the believers in a way we
cannot logically comprehend; even though he left this physical dimension.
Take for example
standing in front of his blessed tomb; he is reported to have said “no one sends salaams on me except Allah has
returned my soul to me so that I can return his salam”.
So if you were
to physically stand in front of the room that contains his blessed body and
engage in sending peace and blessings on him Allah causes his soul to reunite
with his physical body so that he can respond to your greeting. And if you look at live footage of Madinah
you will see that night and day visitors to his Holy Masjid are continuously
standing in front of his tomb sending salaams on him. Is it then that his soul is continuously in
his body? Because we know that the
bodies of all the Messengers never decay as he is reported to have said “the earth has been prohibited by Allah to
eat the bodies of the Prophets”.
What about those
who are not directly in front his blessed tomb.
He is reported to have said that “Allah
has appointed an angel to my grave; whosoever sends darood upon me, until the
Day of Judgment his darood is presented to me along with his name and his
father's name”.
This process of
him replying to our salutations is something which we really cannot conceive
through rational thinking. Only Allah
knows. What we need to do is try to
establish a lasting connection with him and in so doing we will want to attach
ourselves to him through sheer love.
Either through the following of his sunnah or through gaining more and
more knowledge of him; in whatever way you choose you will not want to break
your attachment from him.
To take it a step
further, the human personality contains things that we know are existing yet we
cannot see them. Such an important
dimension of the human personality is with us; i.e. the soul but we know little
of it? Have you seen the soul and what
do we know about it? Allah says
concerning the soul ‘We have not given
you much knowledge of it’.
So if we have
such an important dimension of our personality and know so little of it; how
then can we really comprehend the true personality of Prophet Muhammad (pboh)
and all his capabilities and capacities?
So when Allah says he is amongst
you know that the Prophet (pboh) is with you. How?
Only Allah knows but one thing we understand is that Allah has given us
all a special dimension in our personalities through which we can understand
things which cannot be experienced through reason and logic.
It is only
through the non-physical element of the human personality that one can gain religious
experiences. And that is what
Islamic spirituality is all about; when you concentrate and meditate using the
internal sense. Through this effort you
will in fact be activating that capacity in you that enables you to have
knowledge of the unseen. If you can
activate the qalb you will get experiences that would make this world
and all it contains seem so very insignificant.
Perhaps this is
why Prophet Muhammad (pboh) is reported to have said “fear the vision of the
true believer, for he sees with the light of Allah”.
Why did he not
mention all believers? This should equip
your mind as to the reality of Islamic Spirituality.
Let us all make
a conscious effort to work at activating and culturing the non-physical element
of our personalities. May Allah make it
easy for us and keep us rightly devoted to this struggle. May He bless us all, guide us and take care
of all our affairs in this world and the next.
Transcript
of discourse delivered by
Maulana
Dr. Waffie Mohammed
